Means for controlling speed of and expanding cloth



Feb. 16, 1932.

MEANS J. E. PETERSON FOR CONTROLLING'SPEED OF AND EXPANDING CLOTH Filed July 9, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR,

ATTORNZ? l/ P MA Feb. 16, 1932. J. E. PETERSON MEANS FOR CONTROLLING SPEED OF AND EXPANDING CLOTH Filed July 9, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR,

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BY ATTORNEY ll-Ill" um llllll' Patented Feb. 16, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JOHN E. PETERSON, OF IRVINGTON, NEW JERSEY, ASSIG-NOR TO VAN VLAANDEBEN MA- CHINE COMPANY, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A. CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY MEANS FOR CONTROLLING SPEED OF AND EXPANDHTG CLOTH Application filed July 9, 1931. Serial No. 549,689.

" On the delivery of fabric from a tentering machine, or tenter, it frequently is desired 7 to subject it to a drying and smoothing or other finishing treatment, and this is usually accomplished by a machine known as a Palmer but in any event having a rotary drum (usually heated) around which the oods extends and by whose periphery it is nished by being held in close contact therewith for a time. It is known that although the tenter may have a constant speed the actual rate of delivery of the cloth to the Palmer is not constant, but varies, according to the conditions inherent in the cloth itself and brought into efiect by the act of centering, and that in consequence the cloth is likely to become transversely creased on the drum of the Palmer, which if heretofore rotated ,at variable speed was only so driven by a variable-speed drive manually controlled by an attendant. One object of this invention is to provide for regulating the speed of the Palmer automatically according to the speed of the cloth itself. To this end I provide spaced guides (between the tenter and the drum of the Palmer) bridged by the intervening cloth, and means, normally urged p against the bridging portion of the cloth but movable by the cloth in the opposite direc-. tion, to control the shifter of means tbdrive the Palmer at variable speeds. In these mechanisms it also happens that the cloth on delivery by thetenters gathers transversely,

thus either becoming reduced in width or W perhaps lengthwise creased. Another object is to prevent these faults from occurring and this I accomplish by forming that part of the first-named means which actually contacts with the bridging portion of the cloth as a cloth-expanding roller. v

In the drawings,

Fi 1 is a side elevation of the Palmer and the adjacent end of a tenter provided with the improvements;

' Fig. 2 shows sa1d improvements inside elevation on a larger scale; and

Fig. 3 isa plan of the control roller, partly in section.

The Pahner shown is of well known type, 1 being its frame; 2 the mentioned finishing tween the two rollers 4 at t e extreme right,

drum journaled therein; 3 a belt whose portion 3a tightly embraces the drum for nearly its whole circumference (i. e., except at the right) and the remaining portion 36 of which embracesthe first portion, said belt extending around appropriately placed roll-' then passes under and around the drum between the same and the belt (which is driven by the drum), is then delivered from the Palmer between said two rollers and passes over guide rollers 8 to the take-up beam 9,

driven in any way as by the belt-and-pulley' drive 10 shown in Fig. 1.

The Palmer is driven by a variable drive means, for example, a so-called Reeves drive which it is unnecessary to describe except as follows: In a frame 11 is fulcrumed at 12 a air of levers or shifters 13 and journaled in the frame is the output shaft of the transmission means, 14 being its input shaft driven at some constant speed by any prime mover, as an electric motor (not shown). On the shafts 14 and 15 are splined two pairs of reverse cone pulleys 16 and 17 surrounded by a belt 185 When the shifters are moved on their fulcr-a one way or the other the pulleys of one pair are moved toward each other and the others allowed to move apart, whereby the belt climbs the cones of one pulley pair and descends those of the other, to afford variable speed of the output shaft. The latter shaft is connected by gearing 19' with the drumfl.

At 20 is a roller spaced from and substantially horizontally alined with the lower one of the two extreme right-hand rollers 4, which rollers form guides bridged by the cloth a. Thebridging part of the cloth supports a revoluble roller 21 whose axial sup ort 22 travels in a pair of guideways 23a ormi part of'a stand 23 in which, at the top, is

journaled a pair of sprocket wheels 24 over which extend chains 25 eachhaving the support 22 attached to one end thereof and a weight 26 attached to the other end; the stand also supports roller 20. (As intimated, the parts 24, 25 and 26 are duplicated, though not so shown.) The weights should represent such gravitational force as is somewhat less than that of the roller 21, so that the latter will exert a certain degree of pressure on the bridging part of the fabric.

The shaft 27 forming the axial support of the sprocket wheels and to which they are aflixed has a crank 28 which by a link 29 is pivotally connected with a lever 30 fulcrumed at 31 in the frame 11. To this lever, above and below its fulcrum, the levers 13 are connected by links 32.

Thus, according as the bridging portion of the cloth tends to tautcn or extend, the roller rises or falls, acting through the train of parts connecting it with the shifters 13 to move the latter in opposite directions around their fulcra so that the variable transmission of which they form a part respectively reduces or increases the speed of the drum.

. Any other variable drive means than that described may of course be resorted to.

Roller 21 is preferably of the type known as a cloth-expanding roller acting to stretch cloth transversely when the latter travels in tractive engagement therewith. Rollers for expanding cloth transversely and travelling in tractive peripheral contact with them are of divers well known kinds and any such may be used. Describing the roller shown (by way of example merely, and see my Patent No. 1,799,603) by Fig. 3: The axial support 22 extends axially through a revoluble cage comprising collars 33 journaled on the support at 34; (one near each end and one or more between) and these are rigidlv connected by the parallel rods 35 arranged around said support. To the intermediate collar (or collars) are afiixed longitudinal slats 36. Confined by the rods to only sliding movement lengthwise thereof are other longitudinal slats 37 in two sets, with the set 36 between them and forming therewith a cylindrical shell. These are engaged at 38a with the grooves of cams 38 (only one appearing) fixed on and thus in effect forming parts of the axial support 22. When the roller is in operation and is tractively engaged by the moving cloth each set of end slats alternately moves toward and from the other end of the shell in progressive order under influence of the cams.

In the present case, transverse stretching of the cloth being desired, it will be understood that the axial support is rotatively set so that its cams will move the particular end slats apart which are at any time engaged by the cloth.

Thus, while transverse wrinkling of the cloth is prevented by controlling the speed of the drum 2 from the cloth itself, lengthwise wrinkling or narrowing of the cloth is prevented by the roller 21.

\Vhile I have referred to a machine, as a Palmer, which by its drum smooths the cloth it is not material whether actual smoothin is effected; what is desired is to set the clot by contact with the drum periphery, wherefore I refer to the Palmer as a machine for setting the cloth.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In combination, with a tenter and a machine for setting the cloth delivered by the tenter having a revoluble cloth-setting element around and in tractive engagement with which the thus-delivered cloth extends,

spaced cloth guides between said tenter and element, means to drive said element at variable speed having a shifter movable in one direction to accelerate and in the opposite direction to retard the output sped of said means, and means movable and normally urged in one direction against, but movable in the opposite direction by, the portion of the cloth bridging said guides, for moving the shifter in its first direction when said portion of the cloth slackens and in its second direction when said portion tautens.

2. In combination, with a tenter and a machine for setting the cloth delivered by the tenter having a revoluble cloth-setting element around and in tractive engagement with which the thus-delivered cloth extends, spaced cloth guides between said tenter and element, means to drive said element at variable speed having a shifter movable in one direction to accelerate and in the opposite direction to retard the output speed of said means, a clothrotated roller movable and normally urged in one direction against, but movable in the opposite direction by, the portion of the cloth bridging said guides, and means, connecting said roller and shifter, for moving the shifter in its first direction when said portion of the cloth slackens and in its second direction when said portion tautens.

3. In combination, with a tenter and a machine for setting the cloth delivered by the tenterhavingarevoluble cloth-settingelement around and in tractive engagement with which the thus-delivered cloth extends, spaced cloth guides between said tenter and element, means to drive said element at variable speed having a shifter movable in one direction to accelerate and in the opposite direction to retard the output speed of said means, a gravity-actuated cloth-rotated roller resting upon, but movable by, the portion ofthe cloth bridging said guides, and means, connecting the roller and shifter, for moving the shifter in its first direction when said portion of the cloth-slackens and in its second direction when said portion tautens.

III

4. in combination, with a tenter and a machine for setting the cloth delivered by the tenter having a revoluble cloth-setting ele ment around and in tractive engagement with which the thus-delivered cloth extends, spaced cloth guides between said tenter and element, means to drive said element at variable speed having a shifter movable in one directionto accelerate and in the opposite direction to retard the out ut speed of said means, and means, mova le and normally urged in one direction against, but movable in the opposite direction by, the portion'of the cloth bridgingsaid guides, for moving the shifter in its first direction when said portion of the cloth slackens and in' its second direction when said portion tautens, said second-named means having the part thereof which bears against said portion of the cloth-expanding r01 er.

In testimony vwhereof I aflix my signature.

JOHN E. PETERSON. 

